thingmakersback's Replies


Likewise. It is unexpectedly hilarious. I'm not sure I would even rate it as decent. Granted, I sat through it... But, I do watch a lot of crap films. This one was watchable, but mostly because I was constantly finding things wrong with it that were interesting. At the very beginning we are introduced to what appears to be the most awkward, fragile and cringeworthy law enforcement officer since Asia Argento played a cop in The Stendhal Syndrome. Then we find out that the FBI conducts testing on agents for psychic abilities. And finally we have to follow along with the most flamboyantly goofy, deranged, satanic serial killer in the history of goofy, deranged, satanic serial killers. Hail Satan. Just saw it and this is a good one. In addition to traditional shooting, riding and fist fighting, they actually manage some Old Dark House stuff, complete with secret panels and clutching hands. And, just to add one more element, there's a "mysterious rider" and some Clark Kent style secret identity business. 3 is a straightforward, brutal, nihilistic movie... That pissed off a lot of people by killing important characters from 2. Sure, we'd all have loved to see Ripley with Newt and Hicks, fight more aliens... as a family. But I am not convinced that the resulting movie would have been anything special except a repetition on top of a "happy ending". I think what we got is a helluva good ending for the Alien Trilogy. And the Elliot Goldenthal score is epic. Alien Resurrection is a Frankenstein of a film, with a goofy return of Ripley, a band of throwaway space pirates, a little lost android and a weirdly pathetic final Alien form. Then they crash into Earth... Or that's what I recall. Apparently, Earth was a crappy place anyway. A bit of style and a few good moments like the guy bowling a grenade and the swimming aliens + a decent musical score barely make this movie watchable. Yeah... I enjoy these kind of movies but I suspect I would enjoy them even more if I didn't have to keep trying to ignore violations of the laws of physics. I think we all know that a trail of jet fuel like what we saw in the movie would not be lit by a lighter. You could probably extinguish a flare in the puddle (certainly a match could be put out in it). The only way you could make something like what we saw in the film happen would be by lighting an aerosolized spray from the fuel leak. It's an action movie, though. We understand that physics are suspended... Plenty of people liked the original film and it was a shiny mediocrity. The sequel is insane. All cliches building up to a mission that is truly science fantasy, with no relation to real world aviation or actual physics. I mean, I don't buy the premise, but how in the world does that hilariously bad Top Gun sequel relate? Who is Kit Harington and what is the "Game of Thrones" of which you speak? Yesterday's news, and probably to be a lot less significant in the streaming afterlife. Important thing is: This is not a bad film and Harington is good in it. Wait... Beetlejuice was a Viking? That makes everything better. Only without the wit and style. And, embarrassingly enough, this one is based on an actual event, which was considerably less violent but infinitely more interesting. True enough. It does have a fairly straightforward plot using standard gothic tropes. I would have liked to see at least one secret passage and an explanation of the supernaturally bent window bars would have been welcome. - I do have an explanation, but it is almost Mission Impossible... The bolts need to have been prepared for rapid replacement. A second, pre-bent set of bars are required -- Hasty, and quiet, replacement of the intact bars with the prepared bent ones followed by a sound of rending metal being made to make it seem like the bending had been accomplished instantly. Ending seemed annoying. No sensible reason for anything but a fall, which would be more anticlimactic than anything else. But, the movie is not very good anyway. Goofy impossible threat in an impossible setting, with characters behaving pretty much as you expect in this sort of film. Interestingly, Murray Leinster wrote a short story in 1934 called "Sidewise in Time", which was about chunks of alternate parallel universes replacing tracts of the Earth's surface. I've got faith that people who build those incredible aqueducts could manage to ship sharks in big tanks of salt water up the Tiber 10 or 15 miles. I mean, it's crazy, but flooding the place and having naval battles in it is already crazy. By the way, and this is something I would love to see on film (probably skipping this) there's a novel by David Drake called Killer about a humanoid monster from outer space captured where it crashed in Africa and shipped to Rome for the games in the Colosseum. Naturally the guys who capture it don't get that it is intelligent and it escapes into the city - about to reproduce. So, basically, Alien meets Gladiator. Depends on your definition of over the top. Apparently, the Romans did manage to flood the Colosseum and stage a naval battle in it... This was done elsewhere fairly often but the Colosseum must have been a huge amount of work, what with all the belowground chambers and tunnels under the area that needed to be filled with water. Sharks, sound like they would be no additional trouble, particularly since the Romans wouldn't have cared if they survived beyond the day of the event. Looks like it must be. Large. But, presumably it was heavily shielded and designed to hold it's data for a long time. Normal solid state storage devices are only supposed to be good for a few years if unpowered. Or the somewhat odd sound mix. Dialog on the left only. Or the often absurd editing. Or, and this goes beyond absurd editing, the sequence where the woman goes for a swim, is "attacked" by crocodile stock footage and is saved by the men shooting the croc... This sequence plays out without dialog and with no sound effects, even for gunshots... Then after a brief muddle the same sequence plays again with the woman seeming to undress and reenter the water in order to be menaced by the same stock footage of a crocodile which is then shot, this time with cries for help, splashing, gunshots etc. Or any number of absurdities. - It is fun to watch but really a terrible movie. Very strong. What you might term jungle/noir. Well, it was partly obscured but there was definitely: Wright Flyer, a prop transport, an older jet and, maybe, off to the right and hard to make out - the space shuttle. It really was just a history of aviation kind thing. And, I checked and discovered that the communications link through a satellite connected them with Indiana, not a space habitat.